Mists of Pandaria: Order of the Cloud Serpent

If you want to ride any of the fancy new cloud serpent mounts in Mists, you'll need to get exalted with Order of the Cloud Serpent!

Gaining reputation is pretty fun: it's a mix of Netherwing and Wintersaber Trainers. You'll start off with a cloud serpent egg and raise the hatched serpent to maturity, doing daily quest that involve competitive races along the way.

Vanity Models

Gaining Reputation

Order of the Cloud Serpent is similar to Wintersaber/Ravasaur mounts because you help raise a cloud serpent from egg to maturity, completing quests that help the cloud serpent grow. It's also similar to Netherwing because there are challenging races for rewards, profession-related dailies, and eggs hidden around the island for additional reputation. And like all the factions mentioned above, you're rewarded with a mount at the end!

Quests

Beginning this reputation grind can only be accessed by level 90 players. After talking to NPCs at the Arboretum in the Jade Forest for Wild Things, you'll help fend off Saurok threats on the Cloud Serpent's home, Windward Isle, for Beating the Odds. At this point, you'll choose which color serpent to raise with Choosing the One.

This will get you to Honored, at which point daily quests are unlocked.

Players can get 1500 reputation a day at Honored: 2 quests at +450 reputation, and one quest at +600 reputation.

When you get to Revered, quests will focus on defeating rival cloud serpent trainers (The Trainer's Challenge: Ace Longpaw), and occasionally, going on exciting races! This racetrack is not as challenging as Netherwing Ledge, but there are ways to still optimize your path.

There are 10 checkpoints for the race, suspended from balloons. Your character has to touch the flag in order to get credit--there isn't much margin for error. Flight Training: In Due Course is a quest that helps familiarize the checkpoints.

The entire course is marked with suspended banners. You'll learn the default racing path in Flight Training: Full Speed Ahead. However, as the NPCs hint, deviating from the suggested path can speed up your time.

Speed boosts are provided by cloud rings scattered around the course. These are generally advantageous to pick up as they increase your speed by 10% for 15 seconds, stack 10 times, and each application refreshes the buff. Flight Training: Ring Round-Up introduces this mechanic and finishing the race with 10 stacks rewards In a Trail of Smoke.

It wouldn't be a race without competitors--you race against 5 other NPCs. You will need speed boosts and a custom path in order to beat them.

Comment by taggme

Comment by Interest

I agree. That would make them more awesome. I'd probably set up my own races (heck just multiply the price and make them permanent).

Comment by dragonxv

on 2012-11-10T21:34:52-06:00

but it is a little differnt to fly

Comment by Constantean

on 2012-12-05T15:03:38-06:00

Fantastic guide, could use some more back story and such (or even some pleasantries) . But as far as a quick synopsis of the basics, this is very well put together. I imagine the writer is a programmer :)

Comment by staron

on 2014-02-10T06:36:26-06:00

The mounts are account wide. This guide does not explain whether one alt's exalted reputation counts for the whole account, or you'd need exalted with each and every alt before he can use the cloud serpent mounts.

If it were account wide reputation it might be tolerable. otherwise it's such a monumental waste of time, just to be able to ride a slightly different mount. I have 81 mounts and a macro so that a random mount gets invoked every time, so I can't care less what pops up each time, and some mounts are so unique and hard to get but it does not matter because they all travel the same speed.

Blizzard has not done anything to make it really worth it owning the very special ones, eg Ashes or Al'ar, Fiery Warhorse, Sandstone Drake (ok this can carry two), Swift White Hawkstrider, Thundering Onyx Cloud Serpent, Twilight drake, and so on - I mean here you are on your Ashes of Al'ar and you fly at the same speed as someone on "Ebon Gryphon" or even slower, if he is a Paladin!

I'd rather go fishing than grind this crappy reputation on all my toons.

Comment by Jkpman

on 2014-02-10T08:17:45-06:00

The mounts are account wide. This guide does not explain whether one alt's exalted reputation counts for the whole account, or you'd need exalted with each and every alt before he can use the cloud serpent mounts.

Sadly the rep must be ground out for each toon to be able to ride cloud serpents.

However, there is a boost to reputation that increases gains as well as Quivering Firestorm Egg from the Timeless isle that also provide rep.It doesn't take long to get to exalted.

Comment by Nocked

on 2014-03-31T10:00:57-05:00

Are some of the dailies at Revered random day to day? Because I don't see some of the quests listed above as being offered at Revered.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2014-03-31T10:19:34-05:00

Are some of the dailies at Revered random day to day? Because I don't see some of the quests listed above as being offered at Revered.

It's a random set of dailies each day yes.

Comment by cephadex

on 2014-03-31T19:39:01-05:00

They shouldn't have made anything account-wide. Now people just cry whenever anything else isn't account-wide.

(proceed with the arguing...)

Comment by Rankkor

on 2014-04-01T02:46:17-05:00

Now people just cry whenever anything else isn't account-wide.

How's that any worse than the people who just cry whenever anything is account-wide?

Comment by Schnoodledorfer

on 2014-06-15T10:19:49-05:00

I don't know why, but my alt wasn't offered the breadcrumb quest The Order of the Cloud Serpent that leads to the Arboretum when he reached 90. (Maybe because I already had a cloud serpent that was earned by my main?) My alt was still able to pick up Wild Things (the next quest) from Elder Anli though.

Comment by Marcuskay

on 2015-12-13T01:55:28-06:00

Awesome guide thanks. And the blog link with the locations of the Eggs is great.

Some thoughts that I hope might help:

1-Onyx Egg:a- Early times are good too, you should be able to find 10 Eggs after 6-7 fly arounds.

b- Sometimes they might look like a piece of rock, although once you've picked 3-4 you will be able to pick them out quickly. Also, I had a couple that were light grey. Not sure why, just saying, they are not always dark ones. (just don't get distracted by the coloured ones on the ground). ;)

c- Look behind the trunk of the tress that are leaning over the cliff. During a fly around it can be easy to miss those. I've also not found any on the ground just yet, although the map in the blog shows 2-3 that maybe are.

d- You don't need to turn in each one. They stack and you can keep them for later.

e- In case you forget the map in the linked blog, just make sure that whatever "high-rise" cliffs you are on are IN Windward Isle.

f- I had read this in a guide to the Netherwing rep, and I think it would apply here. It's more advice than anything else "As you collect eggs, it is best if you keep those until you're well into revered. Then use all you found in one go". Basically, keep going at the rep, until whatever rep you still need is covered by all the eggs you have. i.e. if you need 10K rep to hit exalted and have already found 20 Eggs, then you can just turn in all the eggs without doing any of the dailies.

2- Secondary Professions:a- Archaeology: the daily can sometimes take you far away to benefit from the +125 rep. If you have to, I would suggest completing all the far ones, even after completing the quest. By doing so, you will increase the chances of new dig sites spawning closer to or in the jade forest. Archaeology Helper and Archy are 2 addons that help a great deal with that. (You need to clear 1 dig site to complete the quest. It takes about 6 surveys anyway)

b- Cooking/Fishing: How I wish I did not vendor all those Golden Carp. You will need 10 carps per day for the 5 'fish cakes'. If you are at max fishing skill, you're better off not equipping a fishing pole to increase the chances of catching the carps. And yes, while you can probably buy them off the AH, you will get a fishing quest anyway, so might as well get yourself some. Note if you are lvl 525-600 fishing, the odds of carp are higher. (PS: If you still need rep with Nat Pagle of Pandoria, you can get a Mimic Octopus on the shores of Windward Isle).

c- First Aid: I've made that mistake too many times. Headed over to do the dailies WITHOUT any Windwool Cloth or Windwool Bandage. You will need 8 bandages. On my server these are becoming ridiculously expensive on the AH. So you might as well just kill mobs until you have enough, or solo one of the pandaria dungeons (if you can). You don't need Heavy Windwool Bandage as they require x2 as much cloth and the basic ones work just fine.